The berries in the chopper (thread 5). All together now... clench

[CatsCantFlyFast]

For pregnant berries at any stage. Scary thought but this is the one where some babies will appear!

Brod, Bunny did a list near the top of the thread with everyone's due date etc.

An updated list:

Some stats, looks like we need a list for the new thread

The Berries - the next generation
Merkin: Delivery date: 21 March, girl Edie, 8lbs 10
Thunder: Delivery Date: 26 March, girl, 8lbs 12

Katatonic: Due Date 11 April. Having a surprise.
Tally: due 17th April. Having a girl, but no pink allowed.
Boom: due 20th April. Surprises x 2!
PoppySeedBun: due 23rd April, girl, but also enforcing pink ban
Brodicea: due 5th May. Girl - minimal pink princess stuff please!
kitty: 22+2 Edd 22/5/14, pink one!
Puppymummy: due 31st May - team BLUE!
Foody: Due Date 15 June. either will do!
Charming: due 8th August.
Jessplus: due 30th August, don't know gender

The Berries - The Third Generation
Bunny: Start of Oct
Sidney: EDD 18th Oct

This is amazing, the new generation of berry babies has started
We should think about a reasonable time for a meet up, there's due dates pretty solidly now for months so we will probably have to be some bumps and some babies meet up for the first one

Ooh a meetup, good idea, but please not in May! I'll be gone for nearly the whole of the month and I don't want to miss it!

Sick again this morning, after 3 days of feeling relatively well. Still hoping the worst is behind me.

Jess you had your Harmony done at FMC, right? Anyone else? They told me on Mon that they'd save clear results to give at our next appt, but would call and/or email if there were any issues. I thought someone had said they'd called and emailed them with a clear report before the nuchal scan appt...? Maybe they've changed their procedure, but in any case I am praying hard for a full 2 week wait and not one cut short by a worrying result.

Have been looking at cloth nappies lately; what's the Berry verdict? DH says they'll be a pain but IMO nappies on the whole are a pain by nature so why not look into ones that might have a bright side. Has anyone been to a Real Nappy open day? also, any experience with an NCT Nearly New sale? DH has been and says they're a cutthroat free-for-all where all the good stuff is gone within a couple of minutes. [he is normally very optimistic but has done this 2x before so might possibly know what he's talking about in this one instance - annoying!!]

Will be smiling all day at Thunder's happy news! Gooooooooo Berries!

Thanks jess and poppy I was just being lazy! But it's good to have an update on the emerging berry-babies! Whenever I read the list I always do it (in my head) in the style of a horse-race commentator

Meet-up - looks like July is clear of due dates… any thoughts? I guess we'll have to figure out our relative locales.

Cloth nappies - I'm a little on the fence, according to Martin's Moneysavers they are cheaper in the long run. Plus, my pal really liked them, and they reduce landfill. However said pal was also a bit overwhelmed with the drudgery of washing them constantly and looking after a new baby, so I'm figuring we'll start on disposables and then wait and see if we think we could cope with the re-usable option. Reusables also require some outlay up front, so while they are considerably cheaper I'm not sure we could fork out a wad of cash up front… Also an additional caveat, I'm not sure about the cost of all that hot-washing…

nappy wise, we are planning on reuseables but starting off with disposables for the first few weeks as the first stuff is not something you can easily wash out. we bought a starter kit the other day, just waiting for it to arrive, and a pack of terry nappies as well.

Not quite so scared now I'm not quite next, Kat is. I hope everything is going well for her?

meet up early summer sounds good to me. I wouldn't want to go any further North than about Birmingham, as I live almost as far south east as is possible.

Also Jess do you recall having to specifically ask that your baby's gender be checked/not checked before your blood was taken? I've just called to confirm and they said I ought to have asked at the time. I said nobody offered me the option so she's checking something and I'm to call her back at 3:30.

Highly annoyed, and have vomited 2x already so it looks like Week 10 isn't going to be the magical week for me

Sid, yes, I went to FMC. I had a call with good news but then I didn't have a follow up appt for them to wait for. They asked me about finding out the gender when filling out the Harmony paperwork.

OK perhaps that's the difference then, since they know they're seeing me for a nuchal in 2 weeks.

I am genuinely so annoyed at the gender thing. It wasn't brought up during the scan and I didn't think to ask - medical situations throw me off and I lose all ability to remember questions I'd wanted to ask, etc. I double checked the forms I was sent to fill out (the only forms I was asked to sign, apart from the Informed Consent form) and there wasn't a box to tick, so I'm hoping that they'll agree to add it to the panel now rather than leave me hanging. Actually it's something that I'd be adamant they make right somehow - although I hope it doesn't come to that.

On the nappies front, the meconium nappies only lasted a day for us and breastfed baby poo is hardly poo, its bright yellow liquid (but it does seem to stain everything in sight). If I wasn't such a lazy person I think using terry nappies now wouldn't be difficult as despite being frequent, it's not really poo iyswim. I suspect it would be harder/more admin once you're onto solids of formula
Sid - argue your case regards gender if you need to. Unless the US have already processed your bloods there is still time for them to request this.

Nice pregnancy moment: played my guitar for the first time in ages and baby has gone mad with kicking and squirming about .

I don't play death metal BTW.

Been for scan this morning, not great tbh. T1 still breech so section is certainty. Bp raised so had to wait 2 hrs while they did a bp series and bloods for preeclampsia, all normal but scared crap out of me. T2 dropping off on growth so had to go back for dopplers to check blood flow,again normal but now worried about placental function. Feel out of my depth now making decision about delivery timing, spent all afternoon sobbing! This is not how I imagined delivery would be.

Please don't anyone tell me all that matters are healthy babies. I know that, I'm just venting all the frustration I feel that I have no control or input into the birth plan and it's all so very far away from what I'd hoped for

Sorry to bring the mood down after thunder's lovely news this morning x

Boom I'm sorry. Don't apologise for moaning. Is it because its twin 1 that is breech or would they only let you try for vb if neither was breech? Glad your BP turned out ok. What decision did you make about delivery timeline? Sending hugs and chocolates and flowers xxx

Just twin 1 that's the issue merk, if it went head down could go for vb. highly unlikely now though. Had chat about delivery, they know my preferences but will depend on results of ctg on fri and dopplers on tues.

Have you met your consultant yet?? What determines which is twin 1? FX for fri that everything is working fine

Hey boom so sorry to hear this. I hope the tide turns (as it were) and the CTG and doppler results come good. In the meantime, I can understand how gutted you are - as you say you have an image of what delivery will be like, and you've worked and waited so hard to have babies, and now what you imagined would be the big birth moment probably won't happen that way. Still, one step at a time, still some hope by the looks of it - meanwhile wallow

oh boom. sending you hugs. I am with you on this one. I'm completely at sea today because the mw appt that we have just come back from has given us 2 completely different outcomes. she had a feel and the bit that I was told last appointment (by a young lady that may have been a student) was the bum, she can't be sure if it's a bum or a head. so we are going for a scan tomorrow. until then, we are in limbo, not knowing if we are going for home birth or a section. I don't even know what to feel right now. kind of numb.

boom if it helps I was upset for weeks and weeks about my section, I felt I was robbed in some way, I then beat myself up even more as I failed to bf. The thing is H doesnt care about any of it! I'm his mum an he loves me no matter what. I just had this dream of a beautiful water birth, lots of skin to skin time in the pool, bonding while bfing etc. I didn't get any of it and spent my first night as a mum in shock and really disapointed in myself. Try not to beat yourself up, at their first birthday how they came into the world wont even enter your mind.

p.s tally how far south? I'm in Eastbourne.

I'm in Ashford, Kent

Aw thanks Berries. Just needed that sympathy boost, feeling a lot better about it now. I guess up until now I'd been hanging on to the hope that Twin 1 (which is twin nearest the exit merk) would turn; clearly not going to happen so maybe now I can try and make peace with that. Mother thanks for sharing, it's exactly how I feel right now. Glad to know you came through the other side and I hope I can avoid feeling like I've missed out on something special when the time comes. I guess twin babies should really be special enough! And yes merk I met the consultant, she's really lovely and made me feel a lot better about everything than I would have otherwise, so that's a positive development. She was also pretty supportive when I said I wanted to wait for section, went through risks and benefits but didn't come across all judgey at all which I appreciated.

tally that's rubbish, I hope tomorrow's scan shows a more compliant baby than mine! Even if it's breech, you probably still have time for version if you want it...and you can still go for a vb with breech you know, although they'd probably want you at the consultant led unit. Worth thinking about if it turns out you've got a naughty baby on board too. Hope all is well though x

Right, waiting for my crying headache to dissipate (took paracetamol! Bunny take note!) and drinking lots of water, then early night for me I think. Positive mental attitude as of tomorrow! x

Glad you feeling a bit better boom, you must be exhausted now so here's hoping you sleep well x

Hope your scan goes ok tomorrow tally

sid we are going to give cloth nappies a really good go I think, will get some disposables for the beginning though!

boom happy that I could help you feel a bit better. What you're feeling is totally natural, but honestly they will be so worth all this heartache!

tally, they had that concern about H and gave me an extra scan on the day I ended up having him, they couldnt decide what was head and what was bum, turned out that he was head down but he had turned and was back to back. Fingers crossed that your bubba is head down and ready to come out and say hi soon.

oh and boom your doing better than me, when they told me I was having a section in 30 mins I said 'no I'm not, you can't make me', haha. My surgeon didn't take that too well!

thanks guys. I am not sure what to think about vb breech but it scares me quite a bit. but then I don't want to be cut open either. but all this is irrelevant if the mw is just being overcautious. best wait til tomorrow and try to stop my brain going round and round in circles.

sid kick some ass! You're paying them enough!

tally sending positive thoughts for tomorrow

boom I'd be gutted too but it seems like you don't have any choice

Would love to meet up but please can we avoid May!?!